Project ManagementProject ManagementLeadershipLeadership

Alan E. Devney, Jr. PMPAlan E. Devney, Jr. PMP

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Who am IWho am I

• Senior IT Project Manager

• Walt Disney World Special Event Account Manager

• Sega Gameworks/Namco Cybertainment Regional Director

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Today’s TopicsToday’s Topics

• What is Leadership

• Your Role as the Leader

• Setting Expectations

• Questions

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What is LeadershipWhat is Leadership• Leadership envisions what the future should look like,

aligns people with that vision, and inspires them to make it happen despite obstacles.

• Leadership creates the ability for an organization to rapidly adapt to changing business environment. Absence of leadership leaves the organization without the ability to change and develop.

• Ironically, a good manager may not necessarily be a good leader because management is a set of processes, which include planning, organizing/staffing, directing/motivating and controlling. Leadership, on the contrary, is about inspiring and empowering.

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"A good leader is a person who takes a little more than his share of the blame and a little less than his share of the credit."

Your Role as a LeaderYour Role as a Leader

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Your Role as the LeaderYour Role as the Leader

• Set the Emotional Tone.• Provide the tools your team needs.• Know your team members personally.• Be unyielding with your expectations.• Praise Publicly, Criticize Privately.• Provide immediate feedback.• Communication• Be open to all points of view

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Your Role as the Leader - Your Role as the Leader - continuedcontinued

• You Absorb the Criticism, Stress and Keep it Away from your Team.

• Clearly lay out your SDLC & the deliverables by resource that need to be created.

• Find a quick win and celebrate it in a big way.

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“Great leaders are almost always great simplifiers, who can cut through argument, debate, and doubt to offer a solution everybody can understand.”

Colin Powell

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Work Behaviors Work Behaviors

• Always address the issue of when you have to do a subordinates job for them.

• Lead the team to build your plan. Let experts do their job. Do not dictate.

• Read your team’s documentation.• Keep a folded copy of your project plan in your

back pocket all the time.• Know your due dates, and your budget, off the

top of you head.• Talk directly with your project sponsorship on a

regular basis.

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Picking Your TeamPicking Your Team• Hire what you can not train.• Interview Everyone! Do not accept

assignments.• You are looking for team members with a

history of getting it done.• There are two types of people who work

projects:• Those you get things done.• Those who can always justify why they did

not.

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“There is no substitute for CARING for your people. They have families, problems, goals, dreams. They’re JUST LIKE YOU. They can “feel it” when you CARE. They will give themselves for you if you deserve them. If you don’t really care about your people, they pick it up in a heart beat and they disengage.”

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Monkey’sMonkey’s

• Beware of Monkey’s. Do not allow your staff to assign their work to you.– You will end up doing more of their work and

less of your own.– You will be seen as an ineffective leader– You will be the hardest working person on

your team and you will still miss milestones.

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“My grandfather once told me that there were two kinds of people: Those who do the work and those who take the credit. He told me to try and be in the first group. There is much less competition.”

Indira Ghandi

Setting ExpectationsSetting Expectations

‘‘We Do Not Know What The We Do Not Know What The Expectations Are, But We Are Expectations Are, But We Are

Pretty Sure You are Not Pretty Sure You are Not Meeting Them.’Meeting Them.’

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Kick Off Meeting ExpectationsKick Off Meeting Expectations• We are never late due to our own accord.• You must Communicate in advance if any Task due date

of any task that will be late due to outside issues.• Any problems you bring to me must be coupled with a

potential solution.• Sometimes we will need to work late and on week ends.• Provide me with FACTS to support you outside the

project.• All members of team are must speak their mind if they

believe the project is making a mistake.• Culture and Environment: The Project Affects People

and You Affect the Project

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TrainingTraining

• The most significant way you can set expectations.

• Confirms that all members of your team have minimum skills.

• Training Together Is a Good Team Building Activity.

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Reward Your TeamReward Your Team

• Always take care of your team when they have to put in extra hours.

• Re-enforce positive work behavior as a cheerleader.

• Use the names of resources that make significant contributions.

• Pizza, plagues, shirts, gift certificates. are all good ways to tell your team that you recognize their effort.

Recognize teams & individuals who deliver well against the Project criteria

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Performance Criteria & Rewards Performance Criteria & Rewards SummarySummary

For Driving Business Value (DBV) General Criteria Recognition and Rewards

Noticed behavior DBV On-the-Spot Recognition (Subjective) (Handwritten note, spontaneous praise)

Measurable behavior DBV Achievement Recognition (More Objective) Recognition at meetings, team lunch, polo shirts)

Measurable results DBV Excellence Award(Very Objective) ($300-$1000. Certificate, DBV clock, Gas Card)

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Performance Criteria & Rewards Performance Criteria & Rewards Summary Cont.Summary Cont.

• Leaders are essential to this process & should:– Become familiar with the project performance criteria for On-the-Spot,

Achievement, and Excellence recognition.

– Actively evaluate project-related performance against the criteria, for projects they sponsor, manage, participate or otherwise have responsibility for.

– Actively seek to recognize teams and individuals seen worthy of On-the-Spot, Achievement, and Excellence recognition

– Explain how the individual or team being recognized has met or exceeded the project performance standard.

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Never Confuse Activity with Accomplishment

Critical Path?

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Leadership Top 10Leadership Top 10• Personal responsibility

• Simplify consistently

• Understand breadth, depth and context

• The importance of alignment and time management

• Leaders learn constantly and also have to learn how to teach

• Stay true to your own style

• Manage by setting boundaries with freedom in the middle

• Stay disciplined and detailed

• Leave a few things unsaid

• Like people

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Executives in businesses and governments were asked about

the desirable characteristics of leaders…

Characteristic 2002

(%)

1995

(%)

1987

(%)Honesty 88 88 83

Forward-looking

71 75 62

Competent 66 63 67

Inspiring 65 68 58

Others 26 25 26Adapted from Kouzes & Posner 2002

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“Always do right. This will gratify some people and astonish the rest.”

Mark Twain

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Questions?Questions?